This blog began as an online newspaper about Kings Cross, Sydney. It now focuses on the deep problems of drug prohibition - which are so intrinsic to Kings Cross anyway - and exposes the many flaws in the prohibitionist argument, and the pseudo-science that governments fund to prop up their unjust and ineffective laws. Comments are welcome, but please be polite! Content on this site reflects only the views of the writer and are not necessarily those of the editor or any other organisation.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Great online archive of Kings Cross History

Those sensitive residents who keep complaining that Kings Cross "is getting worse" would do well to check this great ABC archive of downloadable footage and sound from the past.

Particularly note the footage and audio in "The Dirty Half-Mile". Listen to the background noise in the street interviews. It sounds just like nowadays on a big night.

See the gorgeous young swingers dancing at the Whisky A Go-Go which, incidentally, was way outside of the current ultra-concentrated Entertainment Precinct, as were many other clubs.

There are interviews with Juanita Neilsen, Bea Miles, Robin Dalton (nee Eakin, daughter of the famous "Gun doctor"), Larry Writer (author of Razor which tells the tales of the past gangland violence of 'Razorhurst') and much more.

The stories are about drinking, dancing, drugs, gambling, prostitution -- all the same stuff certain types complain about now. The same sort were complaining about it then, too, as shown at length in the docco The Glittering Mile, not available on this archive. Do what you like with the Cross, these people will always complain, and it's always "getting worse".

Picture: Kings Cross in 1961. Nowadays the local NIMBYs are outraged because Bayswater Road becomes "impassable" sometimes on a big night. So what? Enjoy it like the evident majority does and did!

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About Me

This blog began in 2003 as the child of a newspaper I launched in Kings Cross, Sydney – The Kings Cross Times. Originally aimed at fighting the enforced gentrification of the Cross (a battle now largely lost), it morphed into a commentary and web resource on drugs prohibition and the damage it so visibly wrought on my local streets. I have now moved to Newcastle but retain an undying affection for the old Kings Cross.